From this article, you’ll learn how to develop a mobile app, what mobile app consists of, what role does the mobile app play in the brand’s ecosystem, and what you need to remember while planning on bringing the app into play.

The article is a record of Igor Pietrzak’s interview during #NocInnowacji (#NightOfInnovation), organized during Digital Festival 2021. The interview took place on the 9th of October 2021 at 9 pm. 

1. What does a mobile app consist of?

First and foremost, every mobile app should work. Then it should work as fast as possible and on most devices. The app must be compatible with many different versions of OSes.
An intuitive interface is one of the must-haves in the case of mobile apps. If users won’t know how to use the app, they will simply stop using it or get rid of it.

2. In which fields of business activity mobile apps can be used? Is only the marketing? 

Mobile apps can be used in many different fields of business and they can play different roles. Besides the marketing side of things, mobile apps can be used to manage business processes, HR activities, project management, and the company’s internal communication. A dedicated mobile app can help to improve every process that takes place inside the company or a given organization. 

A mobile app is a great tool to build and improve the development of a corporate image. Through a well-designed user journey, involvement functions, and different kinds of games, a given company can easily broaden the group of users and then Clients. 

3. Mobile app as a product, mobile app as a supportive element of corporate’s image. In which ways do companies look at mobile apps? 

Mobile apps can fulfil a couple of roles: 

• The image role (e.g: Ambra Kocham Wino app)
• The sales role (e.g: Zalando app)
• The process support role (e.g: Slack app)
• The hybrid role (e.g: Delikatesy Centrum app)

4. Does every mobile app influence company’s sales?

Not every mobile app influences the increase in a company’s sales. Nevertheless, establishing that mobile apps, which role is to optimize the internal processes, work well, help with time and finance management and improve certain processes, in the end, have an influence on the company’s sales.

5. Personalizing or optimizing – what is more important in developing a mobile app?

Optimizing is more important because, without it, the app can’t work properly. Optimizing field consists of use test, focus group research, quantitative analysis, coming up with new special actions and functions that will help in reaching new Users.

Personalizing mobile apps helps the User feel comfortable in using them.

Personalizing can be accomplished by giving the choice of what kinds of information may appear on screen or giving the possibility of picking the design of the interface, for example, if it is going to be light or dark. During the process of developing a new mobile app, it is good to plan the personalizing processes because it’s going to influence the app’s reception and it will help to enhance the app conversion. 

6. What major benefits is the Client given thanks to using a mobile app?

There are three major benefits for the Client, coming from using a mobile app. 

• The feeling of image and lifestyle fulfilment thanks to the app’s closeness to the brand’s philosophy with which the Client can identify. 
• Better time management – thanks to mobile apps we acquire needed information much faster.
• Better finance management – through the participation in many different loyalty programs or usage of special offers.

The biggest benefit for the Client is the feeling of image and lifestyle fulfilment thanks to the app’s closeness to the brand’s philosophy with which the Client can identify.

7. What are the biggest challenges in developing a mobile app? 

The biggest challenge in developing a mobile app from the owner’s point of view is the high cost of app production, IT development team support cost, and marketing cost.

The biggest challenge in developing a mobile app from the production team’s view is correct identification and understanding the need of the target group for which the app is being developed.

8. What are the popular errors in mobile app development?

The biggest errors in mobile app development are:

• Lack of knowledge that the app is a living organism that needs constant development and optimization. 
• Wrong identification and understanding of the target group for which the app is being developed.
• Lack of knowledge of processes that take place in the mobile app after its publication.

9. What are the good practices in mobile app development?

We separate different phases in mobile app development. In The Humans, we base our work on the proprietory model of designing and implementing mobile apps. 

This model is characterized by the top-down approach of going through different stages of app development. Our methodology can be realized in Agile and Waterfall form. The below diagram presents us with its major points.

10. The most important characteristic of every mobile app is…

First and foremost, it’s responsiveness. You should make sure that the app works properly on a given device. 

Next, is intuitiveness. The interface has to be clear for the target group. 

Finally, apps function. The reason why the User spends their valuable time using the app.

11. Where to find ideas used for developing mobile apps?

We should start with extensive online research. Amongst others, we should pay attention to sites like Behance and Pinterest, where you can easily see what is currently trending. Lots of information can be found in Apple App Store or app stores available on Android. Looking through the lists of recommended apps can help to identify the needs, niches and it will help to assess the market saturation.

12. Are there any upcoming trends for 2022 connected to mobile apps development? If yes – what are they?

Multitasking seems to be the main trend for the upcoming year. The typical example of an app that links image and sales roles and strongly engages the User is WeChat published in the Chinese market. This app allows you to do basically everything. 

The next trend consists of algorithms that verify fake news in social media apps. After the latest news about the influence of online sites, it is believed that presenting believable and verified data is going to be really important in 2022. 

When it comes to the new step in creating interfaces, it seems that apps will rely less and less on manual navigation. Things like logging in using passwords will be replaced by FaceID. Voice navigation will be used to fill out forms and IoT structures to manage our homes that are equipped with more and more devices with online access. 

Next year, mobile app personalizing will go a step further. User preferences will not only involve the interface image and presented information but also algorithms responsible for adjusting the right content to our preferences will be even more sophisticated. Based on different User data, apps will be able to adjust the content to the User’s preferences in a more precise manner.